September 27, 2024
By: Stephen Jaffe
Dear Members of the DSO: I just found out that you will be performing CUT TIME. How nice! It is an honor to make music together with you and my admired colleague, Professor Harry Davidson. CUT TIME is a short...
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September 18, 2024
By: Stephen Jaffe
In 2019 baritone Tom Meglioranza sang PEDAL POINT (1993) for baritone and a consort of low instruments. Rodney Wynkoop conducted an ensemble comprised of Duke faculty and students at Baldwin Auditorium, Duke University. Tom gave quite an amazing performance and...
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June 13, 2023
By: Stephen Jaffe
Stephen Jaffe - FORT JUNIPER SONGS for Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, and Piano Program Essay by the composer/ Created for the premiere (1989) [Complete text follows] The American poet Robert Francis lived most of his life in and around the town of...
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March 13, 2023
By: Stephen Jaffe
Lisa Emenheiser presented the premiere performance of Tableaux for piano on February 4, 2023. Lisa Emenheiser’s performance, for which I have included the notes, begins at 31.28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uBlrtjHS0A Tableaux for piano solo Part One 1. Prelude 2. Resonances (“Rainbow Resonances”) 3. Opposites:...
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August 28, 2022
By: Stephen Jaffe
Dear Friends at NC DENR: I have been following this issue for some years now. Obviously the Ukraine war has intensified the EEC’s efforts to obtain “clean” energy, a category of which unfortunately includes wood. Wood pellets provide an important...
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July 7, 2022
By: Stephen Jaffe
Beautiful post by Christopher Kendall in remembrance of David Froom. https://mailchi.mp/ab2deab82fb2/froom?e=1a424fad15
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March 10, 2022
By: Stephen Jaffe
https://artsandletters.org/pressrelease/statement-ukraine/ The post has been taken down by the Academy. To read it please write to info@artsandletters.org.
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February 11, 2022
By: Stephen Jaffe
Lorca wrote La muerte entra y sale de la taberna ("Death walks in and out of the tavern"), which George Crumb set in Madrigals, Book II. This has been a big year of loss among composers whose work influenced me. (I will...
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February 4, 2022
By: Stephen Jaffe
[embed]https://bridgerecords.com/products/9563[/embed] The link above will get patrons to a hard copy. The following link will get patrons to digital copies. https://bridgerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-music-of-stephen-jaffe-vol-4
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January 1, 2022
By: Stephen Jaffe
The 21st Century Consort, among my wonderful collaborators, will introduce TRIO, for viola, clarinet and piano ("aka "Washington Trio") as part of the Consort's series in Washington on Sunday, February 5, 2022 at St. Mark's Episcopal Church. http://www.21stcenturyconsort.org/index.php/in_season#19670. The performers are...
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September 3, 2021
By: Stephen Jaffe
In nice video renditions, two beautiful performances of my chamber music were presented virtually during the pandemic year. The Ciompi Quartet revisited String Quartet No. 3 ("A Tapestry"), and Jonathan Bagg and Mimi Solomon, under the guise of New Hampshire's Electric...
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By: Stephen Jaffe
Dear Governor Cooper: as an educator with more than 40 years experience teaching at Duke University, I am offended by HB 324, and I am writing to you to ask for your veto of this scornful and unwise legislation. The...
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April 28, 2021
By: Stephen Jaffe
Very sorry to hear of the loss of my friend and colleague, Jim Primosch. I am very saddened to hear of his death, and send condolences to his family and to musical colleagues, especially in the Philadelphia area. I am...
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April 14, 2021
By: Stephen Jaffe
Some volunteers are charmed. In May 2012, I composed something of a volunteer. William Curry, the Durham Symphony's conductor came in at the end of the month, just as I was playing it through, and said “I want that piece”. To make...
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December 24, 2020
By: Stephen Jaffe
In June 2020 I was invited to speak about the late Mario Davidovsky's series of Synchronisms for instruments or instrumental ensembles with electronics. Together with Seth Knopp, Director of Yellow Barn, and Curtis Macomber, violinist and faculty member, my presentation...
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December 20, 2020
By: Stephen Jaffe
I was very sad to hear of the passing of our colleague Diane Moser. What a superb, courageous, musical intelligence she brought to everything she put her hands to. And with such courage and friendship for fellow musicians and students....
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July 8, 2020
By: Stephen Jaffe
This morning I added my signature to the following letter. Open Letter Against the Student Ban We, faculty at institutions across the United States, condemn the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) decision, announced Monday July 6th, that stipulates that International...
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May 14, 2019
By: Stephen Jaffe
Jaffe: Light Dances "Chamber Concerto No. 2" MP3 Music Bridge Records Stephen Jaffe’s Light Dances has the capacity, rare in contemporary music, to bring a delighted smile to the listener. In a sense, everything else a reviewer can say follows from that....
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March 18, 2019
By: Stephen Jaffe
An interview by composer Robert Carl on Bridge's new release of Light Dances (Chamber Concerto No. 2) to appear in Fanfare Magazine's May Issue. Bridge 4001. To login via Fanfare Magazine: Light Dances Interview: Feature Article by Robert Carl “Culture...
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December 17, 2018
By: Stephen Jaffe
Stephen Jaffe, Augusta Read Thomas, Tania Léon and Roberto Sierra were commissioned to create new works for the Musical Fund Society's 200th Anniversary in 2020. Three Arcs was finally presented in performance at the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, with Network for...
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By: Stephen Jaffe
Stephen Jaffe's LIGHT DANCES (Chamber Concerto No. 2) was released on December 7, 2018. The very sympathetic performance features the Da Capo Chamber Players and Michael Lipsey, percussion. Click the blue link above to sample on Spotify, iTunes, HD Tracks,...
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November 5, 2018
By: Stephen Jaffe
My newest ensemble work is A Symphony of Spiral and Light (PARADES), for orchestral winds, brass and percussion (41 musicians!). The work was commissioned by the University of Maryland who will give the first performance in May, 2019 under the...
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August 2, 2018
By: Stephen Jaffe
Premiere Performances: Sunday August 12 at 5 PM (Peterborough, New Hampshire) by Electric Earth Concerts Sunday August 18 at 7:30 (Portland Chamber Music Festival, Portland, Maine) A FOREST UNFOLDING (Collaborative Cantata by Eric Moe, Stephen Jaffe, David Kirkland Garner and...
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By: Stephen Jaffe
An archival performance of the September, 2017 premiere of MIGRATIONS (Chamber Concerto No. 4) featuring Gabriel Richard, violin and chamber ensemble. Many listeners asked for a link to the video of the first performance, which has now been made available...
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March 16, 2018
By: Stephen Jaffe
Our dear friend and colleague Jane Hawkins passed away just after Thanksgiving. Here is a link to a Department of Music post about her life: https://music.duke.edu/news/pianist-jane-hawkins-1950-2017-professor-practice-and-former-chair-department-music At a faculty meeting in December, I read a poem by Zelda, the Israeli...
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By: Stephen Jaffe
[caption id="attachment_887" align="alignleft" width="595"] Composer Olly Wilson, New York, May 2015[/caption] Very sad this morning to learn of the death of OLLY WILSON. Olly was a composer of versatile originality and commitment, and one of the most agreeable and effective...
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August 24, 2017
By: Stephen Jaffe
MIGRATIONS, commissioned for the Department of Music by our alumna PENKA KOUNEVA, will receive its premiere by Gabriel Richard, violin and ensemble, on September 16, 2017. The concert also features Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfearer)...
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January 2, 2017
By: Stephen Jaffe
The following was submitted to Raleigh's News and Observer, December 30, 2016, and appeared January 4, 2017. It is intended for general audiences. Karel Husa, An Appreciation of the Composer in Our Midst North Carolinians busy with holidays and overwhelmed...
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November 17, 2015
By: Stephen Jaffe
Canyonlands New Music, University of Utah Looking forward to meeting colleague Morris Rosenszweig, the students and faculty at University of Utah. Lois Martin, viola, and Stephen Gosling, piano will perform FOUR PIECES QUASI SONATA.
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By: Stephen Jaffe
On November 7, Washington, DC's 21st Century Consort began a celebration of their 40th anniversary with a concert at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, commemorating Nicolas Maw's 80th birthday, and also including works by David Froom and Caroline Shaw....
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July 14, 2015
By: Stephen Jaffe
FIGURE-GROUND, for flute, violin, viola, and cello was commissioned by Electric Earth Concerts and given its premiere at the Old Francestown Meetinghouse in New Hampshire on July 9, 2015. (In the video linked above, there are initial comments and examples--the...
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April 5, 2015
By: Stephen Jaffe
The Ciompi Quartet gave the premiere performance of the new work, commissioned by the group, on Saturday, April 11, 2015. For New Yorkers, the work was heard April 18, 2015 at the Tenri Cultural Institute. That program featured Scott Lindroth's...
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April 2, 2014
By: Stephen Jaffe
On April 1, Albany Records released a new disc, ELATION (Troy 1483). The album includes YTTE, Scott Lindroth's trio for flute, viola, and guitar, as well as first commercial recordings of OFFERING, for flute, viola and harp, and FOUR PIECES QUASI...
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October 28, 2013
By: Stephen Jaffe
Dawn Kramer's choreographic improvisation on Kleine pop-musik, the fourth movement of Four Pieces Quasi Sonata for viola and piano.
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July 30, 2013
By: Stephen Jaffe
In Lithuania to take part as a judge in the Juventus 2013 International Choral Competition, Stephen Jaffe spoke on "Reflections On New Media, The Orchestra, and the Documentary Impulse" in lectures at Kaunas University of Technology, and meetings with the...
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